MicroMacro: Downtown Detective review - "Zoom in, solve crime"

• Hidden object style world to explore
• Tons of different cases to work
• Lots of funny bits of dialogue

I am a big fan of hidden object puzzlers and often play loads of them with my youngest, Robin, who loves a bit of eye spy. MicroMacro: Downtown Detective feels like a hidden object game, but with more of a puzzle and story along with it. You become the local detective, often used for crimes where new cops are on the case or where they have come to a standstill in trying to find the culprit.

Each case is shown on a map of the city, and as you unlock more cases, the city itself grows. You can actually often see other crimes going on, as all of the levels are interconnected, but you cannot solve them until you are on that specific level. Being able to see some of the crimes on the map did drive what level I went to next, as I felt like I already knew and had solved the case.

When selecting an actual level in MicroMacro: Downtown Detective, you are given the starting point and told a bit about the case. Sometimes these are larger crimes like murder, or they might be smaller things like petty theft.

Once you have the basics and have identified the victim, you will see a large circle around where you need to start. The map around you has different moments in time, so you will see the character before the crime and the baddie after the crime. You'll need to follow the leading questions in the puzzle and decide what to do next.

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• Is This Seat Taken? review - "A fun yet frustrating puzzle game"

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This could be finding subtle clues in the circle, which have arrows added to them, or following an individual, putting red lines below them. As the rest of the level is black and white, these red marks really can guide you! I found it easy to follow the questions and figure out what to do next, even using things like warrants to be able to check inside buildings nearby. 

If you do get stuck, there is a hint system in MicroMacro: Downtown Detective; however, I did not find these hints to be in any way useful.

There is a guy on a rock in the water who will "give you a hint", but it's often just re-stating the question you are meant to follow. I think the hint is particularly useless when you need to identify more than one answer to a question, like finding three places a crime might have been or five suspects. When you've found all but one, and the hint simply tells you to find them all and that they are probably nearby, it's just not useful.

I did find that the star ratings before you enter a level, showing how difficult they were, and the way the map opens up as you get more familiar with it, to be very balanced. Once you are very used to the look of a place, a new part of town opens, giving you more challenges as you get used to where everything in this new area is placed. None of the crimes is extremely far from their starting points either, making the experience feel balanced.